Georgia grandma strangles rabid bobcat to death in her yard

A 46-year-old grandmother fought off a rabid bobcat and strangled the animal to death with her bare hands.

DeDe Phillips was walking to her truck on June 7 when she heard a neighbor's dog barking and spotted a bobcat by one of her vehicles.

'I thought, "Not today".

"If I had ever let it go, it would have been me, so I made sure I never let it go", said Phillips.

Just moments before wrestling the wildcat last Thursday, Phillips put a sticker on the back of her new truck: "women who behave rarely make history".

Cellphone in hand, she walked out of the house and into the backyard. The cat took two steps and was on top of me.

But 46-year-old DeDe Phillips wasn't going to let the cat get the best of her. "The animal lunged up at her face, at which point she grabbed it by the neck and tried to choke it to prevent more injury to herself", the police report said. "I snapped a picture and about that time the bobcat took two or three steps and leapt", she said.

"They go for your jugular", she tells the Banner-Herald, "because when they can get the vein you're dead in a couple of minutes".

'It caught me slightly on my face, but I got him before he could do much damage there. I took it straight to the ground and started inching my hands up to its throat. I knew that was the only way I was getting out of this, ' she added.

The police report said blood was running down Phillips's face, arms and legs.

She says she was struggling not to scream.

"Thank God I am not a little woman", she said."Thank God it wasn't my daughter-in-law or my granddaughter". As another deputy was getting out of the patrol auto, another man, Levi Mealor, arrived on the scene, ran over to the woman and stabbed the bobcat.

She believes if she hadn't killed the rabid animal, it would have killed her.

A crowdfunding page for her medical expenses has been set up by a cousin. The family has started a donations account at fundly.com to help pay for the treatment.